At Clara’s funeral the grass between the cracks in the pavement was as shocking as green hair. It was brighter, dewier, than any of the lawns of Illeana’s childhood. There, in Long Island, the sprinklers had clicked tiny needles of water so fine and incessant that there was never a rough patch. As a girl […]
Issue 68
Barbara Bonanno: Jersey Girl
At my parent’s house there was a large red velvet anniversary card sitting on the breakfront in the dining room that stated: To My Wonderful Husband. An even bigger card stood at attention right next to it that said: To My Darling Wife. “She put that out,” my father said, seeing me studying the cards. […]
Recovering Intimacy: an Editors’ Roundtable on Writing After 9-11
Our roundtable comes well after 9-11, and rightly so. All of us at PBQ took note of the immediate effects of fall, 2001 on our work as teachers, writers and editors. The mainstream press kept describing the terrorism as inaugurating a “new world.” For our part, we knew that writing felt different in such a […]
Adam McKeown: Words Like Steel
There is a star painted gold and black on the highest circle of bleachers at Veterans’ Stadium marking the spot where Willie Stargell sent the longest home run ever hit in the city of Philadelphia. As a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, I knew I walked among the lowest of the dead in that ancient city, and […]
Angelo Verga: Plane Troubles
A single-engine biplane Sputtered and crashed Into the gated Boca Bath And Tennis Club, clipping A stand of trees, and narrowly Missing the Olympic pool. Residents observed it in very slow motion Come down. It clipped the tall palms To the west of the pool Then glanced off the power tower, A witness, from his […]
BJ Ward: ROY ORBISON’S LAST THREE NOTES
12 mph over the speed limit on Route 80, I realize the way I know the exact size of my bones is the way I know I am the only one in America listening to Roy Orbison singing “Blue Bayou” at this precise moment right now, and I feel sorry for everyone else. Do they […]